54 



Alexander and Nicholls, The Little Penguin. 



r Emu 



St July 



Though the series available is not as long as could be desired, 

 it is, we think, sufficient to show that the colonies of Eudyptula 

 minor in the different States of Australia cannot be separated on 

 the basis of colour. Whilst all the birds from Phillip Island are 

 medium or dark, we have two light birds from Queenscliff, only 

 a few miles away, •v\'hilst of the three young birds from Cabbage- 

 tree Island one is the lightest bird in the series, another the 

 darkest, and the third in the middle of the list. The bird from 

 Penguin Island, Western Australia, is very light in colour, though 

 it should belong to the sub-species separated by Mathews on 

 account of its being duller in colour than the eastern Australian 

 form. It is clear that both light and dark birds are found in the 

 two States (Victoria and New South Wales) from which we have- 

 more than one specimen, and the single specimens from South 

 Austraha and Western Australia, though both light, are not quite 

 as light as one of the birds from each of the other States. 



Dimensions. 



The two forms, E. minor and E. undina, as already mentioned, 

 were supposed to differ in coloration and size, and, in particular, 

 the size of the bill was at one time regarded as differentiating them. 

 Mathews gives the measurements of the exposed portion of the 

 culmen of E. minor novcehollandice as — length 38 mm., depth 

 12 mm. ; whilst those of E. m. iredalei, a sub-species from the 

 Chatham Islands, which he considers close to undina in measure- 

 ments, are given as — length 34 mm., depth 16 mm. 



In his previous paper Nicholls gave a series of measurements, 

 which showed that the birds in one colony varied considerably. 

 He also showed that the bills of males were, on the average, larger 

 than those of females. We have measured the length and depth 

 of the bill in all the adult birds available, and these measurements, 

 together with those of the adult birds previously given by Nicholls, 

 are shown in the following table : — 



